1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an analog to digital converter, and more particularly, to an analog to digital converter that minimizes a number of connections and taps to the reference ladder.
2. Related Art
A subranging analog to digital converter (ADC) architecture is suitable for implementing high-performance ADC""s (i.e. high speed, low power, low area, high resolution). FIG. 1 shows the generic two-step subranging architecture, comprising a reference ladder 104, a coarse ADC 102, a switching matrix 103, a fine ADC 105, coarse comparators 107, fine comparators 108 and an encoder 106. In most cases, a track-and-hold 101 is used in front of the ADC. In this architecture, an input voltage is first quantized by the coarse ADC 102. The coarse ADC 102 compares the input voltage against all the reference voltages, or against a subset of the reference voltages that is uniformly distributed across the whole range of reference voltages. Based on a coarse quantization, the switching matrix 103 connects the fine ADC 105 to a subset of the reference voltages (called a xe2x80x9csubrangexe2x80x9d) that is centered around the input signal voltage.
A flash ADC architecture is the most straightforward implementation of an analog-to-digital converter. Unfortunately, it is very inefficient in terms of area and power. In particular, an N-bit ADC requires 2N comparators. Furthermore, it requires a reference ladder with 2N taps, which generally causes a lot of wiring parasitic capacitance, slowing down the ADC.
A subranging ADC architecture is often used as a more power- and area-efficient alternative to the flash ADC architecture. While subranging does help to reduce the number of comparators, it does not help to reduce the number of taps on the reference ladder. In fact, the situation is complicated by the fact that subranging requires a switching matrix with a large number of switches. Parasitic capacitance associated with these switches slows down the ADC even further.
A conventional way of connecting the first row of amplifiers to the reference ladder is shown in FIG. 2: amplifier A1 connects to reference taps xe2x80x9c2 mxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d, amplifier A2 connects to a xe2x80x9c2 mxe2x88x921xe2x80x9d tap and a xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d tap, etc. Thus, in a xe2x80x9cbrute forcexe2x80x9d flash ADC, the reference ladder 104 has 2N=2m taps (e.g., 1024 taps for N=10).
Three techniques have been published in the literature for decreasing the number of switches in subranging ADC""s. First, interpolation between preamplifier output voltages is often used. Interpolation is often applied in both flash ADC""s, subranging ADC""s and folding ADC""s. This form of interpolation reduces the number of amplifiers in a first array of amplifiers. Since only the first array of amplifiers needs connections to the reference ladder 104, this technique reduces the required number of reference taps and switches. For example, 4xc3x97 interpolation within the fine ADC 105 reduces the number of switches by 75%.
A second technique for reducing the number of switches is referred to as xe2x80x9cabsolute value processing.xe2x80x9d See B. P. Brandt and J. Lutsky. xe2x80x9cA 75-mW, 10-b, 20-MSPS CMOS subranging ADC with 9.5 effective bits at Nyquist,xe2x80x9d IEEE Jour. of Solid State Circ., 34(12):1788-1795 (December 1999). This technique uses the fact that the absolute value function can be implemented simply by a commutator, basically comprising only four switches. This technique reduces the required number of switches in the matrix 103 by another 50%. Note that this technique does not reduce the number of taps on the reference ladder 104.
A third technique called xe2x80x9cmultilevel tree decoding schemexe2x80x9d decreases the number of switches by 62.5%. (See, e.g., Ito et al., xe2x80x9cA 10-bit 20 MS/s 3V Supply CMOS A/D converter,xe2x80x9d IEEE J of Solid State Circ., 29 (12):1532-36, December 1994). Note that this technique does not reduce the number of taps on the reference ladder 104.
For example, a 10-bit analog digital converter in a xe2x80x9cbrute forcexe2x80x9d flash type configuration would require 210, or 1024 taps on the reference ladder, which is very awkward. Thus, the problem involves the total number of taps required from the reference ladder, as well as the number of switches in the switch matrix for a subranging analog digital converter. It is therefore desirable to reduce the number of taps, which reduces the amount of parasitic capacitance due to the connections involved.
Accordingly, a need exists for an ADC circuit topology that significantly reduces the number of switches and taps from the reference ladder 104.
The present invention is directed to an analog to digital converter that substantially obviates one or more of the problems and disadvantages of the related art.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, there is provided an N-bit analog to digital converter including a reference ladder connected to an input having a plurality of taps voltage at one end, and to ground at another end. An array of differential amplifiers has differential inputs connected to taps from the reference ladder, wherein each amplifier has one differential input that is the same as a neighboring amplifier, and another differential input shifted by one tap from the neighboring amplifier. An encoder converts outputs of the amplifier array to an N-bit output.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided an N-bit analog to digital converter including a plurality of differential amplifiers whose differential inputs are connected to a plurality of taps from a reference ladder, wherein any pair of neighboring amplifiers has one each amplifier has one set of differential inputs of the same polarity that have the same input, and one set of differential inputs of the same polarity that have inputs that represent adjacent taps from the reference ladder. An encoder converts outputs of the amplifier array to an N-bit output.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided an analog to digital converter including a plurality of amplifiers whose inputs are connected to a plurality of taps from a reference ladder. Each amplifier has a first input of a first polarity representing one tap of the reference ladder such that adjacent amplifiers share the one tap. Each amplifier has a second input of a second polarity, such that adjacent amplifiers have inputs from adjacent taps. An encoder converts outputs of the amplifier array to an N-bit output.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided an analog to digital converter including a plurality of amplifiers whose inputs are connected to a plurality of taps from a reference ladder and to an input signal. Each amplifier has inputs shifted by half a tap relative to its adjacent amplifier. An encoder converts outputs of the amplifiers to an N-bit output.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided an analog to digital converter including a plurality of amplifiers whose inputs are connected to a plurality of taps from a reference ladder and to an input signal. Each amplifier has one input that it shares with an opposite polarity input of one adjacent amplifier, and one input that it shares with an opposite polarity input of another adjacent amplifier. An encoder that converts outputs of the amplifiers to an N-bit output.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.